Paranormal Activity arrived last year to much fanfare and some derision from the fanboy crowd. A sizable group, myself included, found the first film to be quite scary and riveting. It wasn't about a giant monster in a rubber suit or CGI jumping out and scaring the beejesus out of you. It was much more subtle than that and was definitely influenced by the hoards of ghost shows now on TV, some of which are decidedly terrible. However regular viewers of Ghost Hunters or Ghost Adventures will see much the same kind of footage and that stuff appears real. I had an encounter myself some years ago in my old house in New Jersey. The heat had gone out again on the coldest night of the year and I was trying to keep warm using the fireplace. But no matter how big the fire got it was still freezing. Figuring something was wrong, I went into the basement and found the dead bolted door there open. I had been down there the day before and knew the door was closed and locked. Yet here it was open and letting all the cold air in. I have no rational explanation how that door got open. A friend of my staying with me for the weekend while his place was getting ready fled in terror one night while I had been away. He would never talk about what exactly happened but mentioned the Starship Trooper bugs my house had (they looked like miniature versions of the movie bugs) attacked him, strange sounds coming from other rooms even and little green men, which was odd because I had never told anyone that as a child I had woken up one night and saw three or four greys at the foot of the bed. I screamed, they aimed some sort of device at me and then it was morning. I still don't know if what I saw was a dream (most likely) or real. My sister said I screamed out in my sleep in the middle of the night but saw nothing so I still like to think it was just a dream. But after my friend left to go sleep in Central Park rather than spend another night at my house makes me question it all the same.
That is exactly what the movie is. It is a series of moments that most of us would rationalize as being nothing, even though we in the audience know better. Normally I hate prequels, which this film is, but in this case it works as it gives us a better understanding of what the demon that haunted Katie and Micah in the first film really wants.
The movie opens with Katie's sister's family bringing home their new baby. Cut forward a year or two later and the time period is 60 days before Micah dies. Apparently, Katie's sister is the original haunting for deeds done by one of their ancestors decades earlier. Now it wants the newborn Hunter. And it will do anything to get it. Like the first film, this one starts off slow; moving pans, a dog barking at nothing, the pool cleaner moving out of the pool. Through it all the Dad finds reasonable explanations for everything. The Daughter and Mom however think differently and begin scouring the security cameras the family had installed after a break-in for anything odd. Eventually things go horribly wrong as even the most ardent skeptic would have to realize that there is indeed a real problem.
The scares are real and the footage has a Where's Waldo aspect to find what's moving or where that shadow is going. This is infuriating for some but for any fans of Ghost Hunters this is what we do every week watching these shows. Some HATE HATE HATE this kind of movie in which case don't go. I am so tried of the trolls In the Internet pistol whipping anything they find objectionable with no realization that everything on the planet isn't geared just for them. Another example of the dumbing down of America where everyone gets a trophy for participating and originality is considered the way not to conform to everyday values. It's sickening.
This film does has it's problem. As there were no credits, I'm pretty sure the lead actress was Sprague Greydon from shows like 24 and Sons of Anarchy which doesn't help the "family in distress angle." Couldn't find another no name actress? Really? And the continuity errors in this movie were jarring. Several scenes had disappearing plates, napkins and pans. One such scene changed pots hanging on a rack every time the scene cut away to a different angle. The pans were silver, then red, then they changed position. This kind of stuff really hurts a film that's supposed to be found footage.
I would recommend this film to anybody who loves ghost shows. If your expecting a splatter picture wait until next week when Saw 3D opens. You'll be much happier.
3 and 1/2 stars out of 5
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